The Beginning
When the now teammates of DocentEDU showed up to Twin Cities Startup Weekend EDU at the Carlson School of Management on May 2, they all came as strangers. They all came with different ideas to pitch and different goals for the weekend. However, most importantly, they all came to do something great--and that they did. By winning Startup Weekend EDU, the DocentEDU team can now pursue their goal of creating a business which will positively impact education as well as the business world.
The Middle
After just 52 hours, the 7 teammates went from a group of strangers with diverse goals, to a tight-knit team with one goal: transforming the way we interact with online content by creating the web tool DocentEDU. @Matt Nupen, @Karin Hogen, @Dan Antonson, Wyatt Andersen, Ashish Shrivastava, @Abdulla Malek, and @Derek Persons made up the team. From the minute Matt Nupen gave his pitch, everyone began to focus on how to create the best and most developed product possible in the short amount of time given during the weekend.
The End
Throughout the hectic weekend, the team worked tirelessly. This paid off by the first place win on Sunday night. According to the judge who announced the win, @Jay Haugen, DocentEDU is a rare innovative tool that can transform teaching and learning. He even emphatically said that he wanted DocentEDU in his school district the next day.
The amazingness of the weekend comes from our team members, but we would also like to thank others who made our dream possible. We as a team would like to thank the organizers of Startup Weekend Twin Cities: Steven Wellvang, Christopher Nyren, Kristen Daniels, Seijen Takamura, and Justin Moen. Without their constant encouragement and help, our product wouldn’t have made it as far as it did. We also want to thank all of the mentors and the judges who gave us such great guidance and feedback. Lastly, we want to thank @3M Post-It Products for their great collaboration tools.
The Future
Currently, DocentEDU is registering for The Minnesota Cup competition. The team is also exploring the amazing contacts it made during the weekend. We hope to keep working, get some investment, and get a beta version up and running as soon as possible.
In the meantime, make sure to sign up on our website for updates and to follow us on Twitter.